What Is A Happy Birthday In Fighting Games?

A “happy birthday” occurs in a tag fighter when you combo two of their characters simultaneously. This usually happens when they call in an unsafe assist which gets hit.

The term’s exact origin is unclear, but it definitely comes from Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. As the story goes, one player, possibly PR Balrog, was celebrating their birthday while competing in a tournament.

In the late stages of the bracket, they called in a poorly timed assist and watched helplessly as their two remaining characters were knocked out. To rub salt in the wound, their opponent stood up and wished them a happy birthday.

#fightinggames #gaming

[subtlewhatssubtle]

Big Band's Satchmo Solo might just be Skullgirls' greatest gift to video games. Five uninterrupted seconds to style on someone musically is probably worth five bars of meter.

[keylimecookies]

I love how’s it’s an intended mechanic of all team fighters but just has an unofficial name

[haidynwendlandt]

IMO I think that the origin is the fact that when you call an unsafe assist it’s like that character is being “born” when they appear for the first time, thus making the term “happy birthday” an ironic jab at how unsafe their call is

[ryan_ford]

I swear happy birthday was used as a term in MVC2 way before 3 came out

[nayraider]

What was that game 1 before the end? It looked so cool